Review: Mosaic Tape by Heavyocity

As the fourth entry in the Mosaic series, Mosaic Tape takes us deep into the world of analog tape. With sounds that are warbling and aged, Mosaic Tape is the perfect complement for composers wanting to make an entry into the current analog tape loop sound movement without a huge investment in pedals and outboard equipment.

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Review: Mosaic Tape by Heavyocity

The sound of analog tape has become a sought after sound in many instrumental and ambient compositions. Heavyocity’s newest entry in the Mosaic series, Mosaic Tape, brings you all of the warble and degradation of analog tape without the expense of purchasing outboard gear. Mosaic Tape comes with a great selection of snapshot presets and with a very powerful sound design engine, Mosaic Tape will allow you to create analog tape-inspired sounds to your heart’s content.

Mosaic Tape Main GUI

Mosaic Tape normally sells for $119.00 from Heavyocity

Thoughts

I’ve yet to find a Heavyocity library that didn’t inspire me. Heavyocity’s Mosaic series is one of the developer’s most unique undertakings to date – taking the sound of foundational sound elements like keys, voices, and bass and pushing them to their sonic edge via a very powerful and intuitive sound design engine. However, Mosaic Tape is unique. Unlike its predecessors, Mosaic Tape doesn’t come to the table with a commonly used instrument or sound. Instead, Mosaic Tape brings several common instruments and sounds to the table (orchestral instruments, keys, and choirs) and pushes them through an engine that infuses the sound of analog tape. With the powerful Mosaic engine, Heavyocity has taken the beautiful warbling and degraded tones of analog tape and found a way to give you full control of them directly within an intuitive Kontakt interface. More so than maybe any other developer, Heavyocity excels in the creation of brilliant sound design engines within Kontakt that always allow composers to push their samples into brand new sonic territory. Through arps, playable sounds, and rhythmic patches, Heavyocity has provided a good number of snapshot presets (106) to get you started, but the beauty of Mosaic Tape lies in the powerful Mosaic engine and its ability to bring you sounds that are truly unique. It’s fantastic to have a powerful engine but it doesn’t really matter if only a few experts can figure out how to use it.

Well, that is not at all the case with Mosaic Tape. Heavyocity’s Mosaic engine is probably the best combination of power and ease of use I have seen in a Kontakt instrument. This engine is a beast, but it’s a beast that is easily tamed after spending a few minutes experimenting with the controls. Mosaic Tape is not likely to be a staple within your composing toolkit, as it isn’t necessarily intended to bring you the common sounds that you will consistently look to be placing into commercial tracks. However, what it does, it does exceptionally well. I don’t know of an easier way to add analog tape-inspired instruments to your tracks, and it’s not just easy – it sounds freaking fantastic!

Facts

Mosaic Tape is 3.2 GB and includes 106 snapshot presets featuring 113 different sources – from orchestral, to choirs to keys and tuned percussion. Mosaic Keys is housed in Heavyocity’s Mosaic engine and runs in either the free Kontakt Player or Kontakt 6.4.2.

Mosaic Tape normally sells for $119.00 from Heavyocity
Owners of other Mosaic libraries can receive an additional 20% off as well.

Demos of Mosaic Tape by Heavyocity

Videos of Mosaic Tape by Heavyocity

Contributor Raborn Johnson reviews Mosaic Tape by Heavyocity
“As the fourth entry into the Mosaic series, Mosaic Tape takes us deep into the world of analog tape. With sounds that are warbling and aged, Mosaic Tape is the perfect complement to composers wanting to make an entry into the current analog tape loop sound without a huge investment in pedals and outboard equipment.”